Industry

They said what? They’re using that business model? They hired whom? [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Of course this is the hitch.

Eden Eternal starts pre-registration… and offers players NFTs for participation

18
If you were looking forward to the relaunch of Eden Eternal under X-LEGEND, we have some bad news for you. It's not exactly the...

Ubisoft Paris is accused of developer crunch and poor project management by French game workers union

6
Solidaires Informatique, the French game workers union that has been working with employees at Ubisoft Paris since the developer's widespread sexual harassment claims came...
Oh good.

E3 2023 has officially been cancelled

27
This probably isn't going to come as a surprise to anyone, but it's still a significant announcement. E3 2023 has been cancelled outright according...

Australian parliament proposes ratings changes to games with lootboxes and ‘simulated gambling’

1
It appears that the Australian parliament is looking to make some moves against games with lockboxes, or at the very least a half-measure: The...
Look, ma, no colors!

Vague Patch Notes: Can anyone really cover games objectively when there’s suffering built-in to them?

46
In July of 2021, we started a roundup tag in our tag cloud that most of us probably didn't expect to still be using...

Electronic Arts lays off hundreds of employees as part of a ‘restructuring’ plan

17
Pink Easter eggs may be in season, but over at Electronic Arts, employees are filling up their baskets with pink slips instead. The video...
hax

Disney axes its fledgling metaverse division as part of a 7,000 employee layoff round

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How long does it take for the House of Mouse to decide the metaverse isn't worth it? Roughly a year, apparently, as Disney has...
Oh deer.

Donkey Crew announces new survival game Bellwright as Last Oasis begins fourth year of early access

6
You know how it goes. You're enjoying a normal one, just chilling and vibing, and then suddenly the constabulary shows up all, "uh, so...
Same old story.

Activision-Blizzard and NetEase’s breakup was caused by long-brewing disputes and alleged threats

21
One of the biggest MMO and gaming stories capping off the end of 2022 and spilling over into the start of 2023 was the...

Sega, Tencent, and Ubisoft are the latest game studios to drop out of this year’s E3

9
It was already bad enough for E3 2023 that Sony, Nintendo, and Xbox all elected to leave the show behind; now the show is...

Japan drops Microsoft/Activision-Blizzard antitrust probe as lawmakers scrutinize Japanese gaming market

13
Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick released a memo to his staff (and everyone else in the entire world) on the ABK Substack (which exists) last...

Ultima Online’s Richard Vogel discusses the horrors of player behavior in an open PvP sandbox

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Gaming historians have long documented that Ultima Online was something of a communal wild west when it created its open FFA PvP sandbox -...

UK regulator finds Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard buyout won’t harm competition or Call of Duty on PlayStation

8
The see-saw ride of findings and statements from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority continues, as the governing body has now put forth an...

PvPvE dungeon crawler Dark and Darker was booted off Steam over stolen code allegations

12
Back in February during the Steam Next Fest demo event, we cast a light on Dark and Darker, a first-person PvPvE dungeon crawler from...

Nexon dives further into NFT and blockchain games with MapleStory N and a MapleStory Universe ecosystem

15
Readers might remember that Nexon's push into crypto has gone as one might expect, with $40M disappearing into the void in 2021 and continued...

NCsoft hypes up its visual and AI engine tech in a trailer for narrative title Project M

1
Our coverage of a trailer for a single-player game might seem like we've lost the plot on paper, but this is less about the...
Not a great sign.

Activision-Blizzard’s diversity and inclusion goals are out of sync with its corporate action

15
Activision-Blizzard has released a full-year review of its diversity, equity, and inclusion stats for 2022 this week, and the first thing readers will notice...
This is garbage.

Vague Patch Notes: The objective truth of ‘objectivity’ in games journalism

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All right, folks, real talk: Originally there was going to be a much more sober and depressing column this week, but then this week...

Massively Overthinking: The times MMO developers admitted they were… wrong

13
Earlier in March, Jagex did the unthinkable for an MMORPG company: It admitted it was wrong about something. If you're used to the Blizzards...
You are bad and you should feel bad.

FTC finalizes fine for Fortnite’s dark patterns as Epic talks up NFT ‘games’ on EGS

8
Usually when people says things are going "pretty well," your first sympathetic instinct is to ask about what might be troubling them; those words...